NAIROBI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya rugby Sevens women's team coach Kevin Wambua believes his team is on the cusp of promotion as one of the core teams of the World Series despite losing this year's contest.
Wambua who saw his side lose in the semifinals believes the team will be more mature and experienced ahead of the 2019 qualifiers. Meanwhile, China defied the odds to win the promotion contest and will join the 13 permanent teams in next season's circuit.
"China have showed consistence and power to be the winners. But Africa is soon joining in and either Kenya or South Africa will be strong enough to make it as a core team in the circuit. Kenya team has developed rather fast and their reward will soon come," Wambua said on Monday.
Kenya team, Lionesses, will now turn their focus on making history as they debut at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia starting on Friday.
The Lionesses are part of the eight teams taking part in the inaugural women's competition and are in Pool A with New Zealand, Canada and continental rivals South Africa.
They will kick off their campaign with a match against New Zealand on Friday before taking on Canada.
They will complete their pool play against South Africa on Saturday as they look for a top two finish and semifinal qualification in the quest to keep their medal hopes alive.
In the meantime, China's head Coach Chad Shepherd is happy his team won the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series qualifier in Hong Kong, China.
It was China's sixth wins from six matches to claim the coveted core team place on the series next season.
"It is pretty surreal, but a lot of the hard work was already done, this was just adding the icing on the cake really," Shepherd, the former Germany sevens coach who lost in the men's qualifier final last year in Hong Kong, told Asia Rugby.
"I am just really proud. We only had nine players left for the last two games, three were ruled out with injuries so they showed a massive amount of heart. The work ethic and determination really showed through, and that was pleasing more than anything."
Next for China is the HSBC Kitakyushu Sevens in Japan on April 21-22, where they will get a reminder of what life is like on the series when they join the world's best teams as the tournament's invitational team.
In the men's qualification, Japan got promoted to the World Rugby Sevens Series 2019 after beating Germany in the finals and will be one of the 15 core teams contesting the 10-round World Series, beginning next December.
